


ticking clocks and beating hearts

by sciencegirlfriends



Category: The Society (TV 2019)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canon Universe, Comfort, F/F, Fluff, LISTEN they’d be a good couple and i love them, One Shot, Post-Canon, Teen Pregnancy, i said what i said, just two girls w crazy sapphic energy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-25
Updated: 2019-05-25
Packaged: 2020-03-17 02:37:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18956188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sciencegirlfriends/pseuds/sciencegirlfriends
Summary: New Ham is in shambles and the world may be ending but Becca is content to lay in bed with a considerable amount of abandon, a sleeping baby snuggled in her arms and her friend (!?) at her shoulder.orBecca reflects on everything and is also probably fallin in love with Kelly mother-fuckin-delivered-a-baby Aldrich-





	ticking clocks and beating hearts

**Author's Note:**

> ahem. okay listen. becca gelb and kelly aldrich are my absolute favorite characters and i will defend them at all costs. my mf babies. my mf queens. 
> 
> look they don’t do much characterization of these two in the first season of the society so sorry if this feels ooc. i really tried 
> 
> i’m sorry for typos or formatting issues, it’s 3:11 AM and i’m gay. hope you enjoy and please let me know your thoughts. cheers!

It is half past 8 o’clock when Becca finally makes it back to her bedroom.

 

Sam is off with Grizz, likely dealing with the fallout of the coup and Allie’s subsequent arrest, but Becca is just too tired to care. She had just birthed a damn baby, and if anyone had anything to say about that, they could take it up with her tomorrow. Or next week.

 

At the moment Becca is content to lay in bed with a considerable amount of abandon, a sleeping baby snuggled in her arms.

 

Eden is beautiful and motherly bias is fake.

 

It is quiet now. A clock ticks somewhere in another room and vaguely reminds Becca of their somewhat dire situation. Just a bunch of kids faking their way through survival. Stranded and completely isolated. And yet—

 

Kelly. Kelly had delivered a fucking baby, first-time with no practice, no formal education, no training. Becca thinks she owes her life and maybe all of her earthly possessions to the girl— and Gordie— for being there for her in the most important way possible.

 

She could never have done this alone she thinks, not for the first time. Kelly, with her extra rations or comfortable company on lonely nights, and never with unwanted questions or accusatory words. Sam, patient and steady in his love and support. They maybe just saved her life.

 

Becca remembers the fear of not knowing, so palpable, always there. Six months ago she wasn’t sure the baby would make it out of this alive. She didn’t think _she_ would make it out alive.

 

But she feels her heartbeat now— two heartbeats!— sure and steady against her achy chest.

 

Soon, she’ll have to rejoin New Ham and the chaos that comes with it, but for now she allows herself to exist only in the bubble created by the four walls around her.

 

Suddenly, the bedroom door creaks open and the bubble she had mentally constructed pops. Becca thinks she may have to face her reality already, but then Kelly slips in.

 

She closes the door softly behind her with a shy grin, unknowingly sealing the fortress that Becca needed. All at once and once again Becca’s whole world exists within the walls of the room.

 

“So… Allie and Will are still locked up somewhere. Harry has no fucking clue what he’s doing, and this place could very well go to shit by tomorrow.” Kelly huffs as she crosses the room to the bed, smiling for a moment as she notices Eden asleep against her mother’s chest.

 

Becca sighs. “Is it wrong that I can’t even bring myself to care about this all right now?”

 

Kelly laughs suddenly, the sound bright and delicious, and she shakes her head. She scoots herself next to Becca on the bed, back resting against the headboard. Her hand instinctively falls to rest on Becca's own cradling Eden and, really, Becca's heart shouldn't prick quickly and she shouldn't think she'd like to get used to this faux feeling of domesticity with Kelly, but the thought can't hurt anyone if it stays quiet in her own mind.

 

“Not at all. You just had a baby. I think your disregard is reasonable given the circumstances.”

 

Becca sighs, nodding through a drowsy smile. “Thank God. Because I really don’t. Care, I mean. I don’t care at all.”

 

“Your world right now is in this room,” Kelly says, and Becca’s breath catches a little at the truth of the statement.

 

“Yeah, for tonight at least. Maybe for the next few nights. We’ll see how long I can go before cabin fever sets in.”

 

Kelly laughs, but seems to sober pretty quickly. “Cabin fever isn’t going to be what forces you out of this comfy, comfy bubble. You’ve been busy pushing a baby out but things are _not_ going well out there right now, Becca.”

  


With Kelly closer now, Becca can see how tired the other girl truly is. Her heart thuds painfully in her chest as she watches the other girl talk animatedly about the current political predicaments of New Ham. Becca realizes with a start just how upset it makes her that Kelly is stressed and seemingly exhausted. She had gotten so close to her over the past few months, and Becca finds that she is perhaps excessively pained by Kelly’s own distress.

 

“Kelly.”

 

The taller girl halts mid-sentence, her mouth perched on the edge of a word. Becca thinks absently that it is very cute, and she promptly begins to feel jittery looking at the amazing girl beside her.

 

“You learned how to deliver a baby.”

 

Kelly faces scrunches in confusion at the sudden topic change. “Well, yeah. I think I did, anyway. I mean—“

 

“You delivered _my_ baby. My baby that is perfectly healthy and safe. _You_ did that.”

 

Becca lifts Eden slightly in her arms and towards Kelly to emphasize her point. And she doesn’t _mean_ to start crying, really, but she was alive and Eden was alive and Kelly was responsible and here the girl was _completely_ oblivious to her own brilliance, gorgeous and unwavering, and focusing on others’ needs and problems in such a Kelly-like way that it’s all Becca can do before she’s crying so much that Kelly has to shift Eden into one arm as she wraps the other around Becca’s shuddering shoulders.

 

“Hey-- Becca.” If Kelly is alarmed by the other girl’s hysteria, she doesn’t show it and takes the emotional development in stride. “It’s okay.”

 

Becca cries harder. “You have been selfless and caring and just… _here_ for me through this all and I’ve been, well, a complete bitch about most things. Can’t blame it all on pregnancy hormones, you know.”

 

Kelly shifts her body, tilting her head to look at Becca’s tear-streaked face. "Becca," she says, her voice full of affection. She looks at her like maybe she and Becca are the only two people in the world, and it's all too much for the shorter girl, who lets out a loud sob into Kelly's shoulder. 

 

Kelly leans down to kiss the top of her head lightly. "Baby, it's okay."

 

Becca’s heart clenches suddenly and her chest feels too itchy and too tight and she doesn’t even know what this all means but—

 

“Sorry, I— Becca, listen. I would do everything that I did for you over again because you deserve it. You don’t have to apologize for something that is natural and beautiful.”

 

Becca is still not over the accidental (?) nickname slip so she teeters into a response, her heart jumping in her throat. “Can I apologize for bringing an unintentional consequence of my actions onto this whole community?”

 

Kelly levels her with a look. “You can apologize for calling Eden an ‘unintentional consequence’.”

 

Becca sobers at that, taking a deep and labored breath. “Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. I just don’t want to cause any more issues for this place. We have a lot of those already.”

 

“Whether or not assholes like Campbell and Harry agree, this community has to do everything together. And that means we raise Eden with you. You, Sam, me; we’ll do this together. That means whatever _issues_ you make,” Kelly emphasizes the word like she doesn’t believe in it, “will be all of ours to handle.”

 

“You think Harry will be on board for that one?” Becca says, despite herself. The hormones are really doing a great job of making her a complete asswipe.

 

“Harry didn’t stare up your vagina for 20 minutes,” Kelly says, and Becca feels her cheeks get very warm. “Frankly, his opinion doesn’t mean shit. He gets on board or he answers to me.”

 

Becca delivers her laziest lopsided grin, wiping away stray tears and gently taking Eden back from Kelly’s arms. “I thought Sam was intense, but I’m now realizing you could be Eden’s fiercest protector.”

 

“It’s taken _way_ too long for you to realize that one, Bec.”

 

The itch in Becca’s chest is there again, but it’s subdued as she watches Eden sleep peacefully, the baby beautifully reckless in her ignorance to the world around her.

 

“She really looks like you,” Kelly sighs quietly, reaching across Becca to rest her palm against Eden’s tiny cheek.

 

Becca relaxes against Kelly as she hears a nearly silent “so cute” slip past the other girl’s lips. She allows her head to fall against a soft shoulder and tries not to think about how she can feel a fast heartbeat that rivals her own increasing pulse.

 

Becca immediately dismisses the notion that Kelly could be made nervous by their proximity to one another, as it is _obviously_ due to the sleeping baby in Becca’s lap. The taller girl must be thinking about all of the things to come for her friend and the baby in their unpredictable world.

 

Becca is half-sure herself that her own thundering heart is due to this same thing and not the warmth of Kelly’s left arm still around her shoulders and their feet that had become tangled with one another at the foot of the suddenly enormous bed. Surely there is enough space up here that they do not have to be sitting so close.

 

But maybe it’s not so bad, Becca thinks, as Kelly’s head rests atop her own and she sinks further into the shorter girl’s warm side.

 

Becca decides now is not the time for gay panic and that this is all a work of pregnancy hormones and teenage overreaction, and she lets her eyes slip closed, overcome once again with exhaustion.

  
  
  


When she opens her eyes again, the room is darker, and she jolts slightly when she remembers Eden is in her arms. The baby is still breathing evenly, though, and Becca breathes out slowly, turning to inspect the girl next to her.

 

A sliver of moonlight peaks through the curtains on the windows and illuminates Kelly’s sleeping face.

 

Becca once again feels guilty for taking up Kelly’s time and space— but, no. She must remind herself that Kelly does _not_ see this— see her— as a burden. They are all in this thing together.

 

Becca peers up at Kelly’s features, relaxed in sleep, and she leans up gently to place a kiss against a soft cheek.

 

The tick-ticking of a distant clock syncs with one, two, three quiet heartbeats in a warm room, completely free from the world outside.

**Author's Note:**

> becca, sam, kelly, and grizz are the most valid characters on the show and i won’t apologize for saying it
> 
> let me know if this one shot is missing anything or if there should be another part. probably no one will read this anyway bc i think i’m the only person in existence that likes these two together. only time will tell
> 
> IF you did happen to read this, please for the love of all things come yell at me or with me or just yell about the society on my tumblr i’m BEGGING thanks @billandchill.tumblr.com


End file.
